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One year after disastrous B.C. flooding, fear of new climate disasters loom

Human-induced climate change greatly increasing risk of such events, says UVic scientist

When a dike was breached and floodwaters started to flow across British ColumbiaB次元官网网址檚 Sumas Prairie a year ago, poultry farmer Corry Spitters said all he could do was let nature take its course.

A feeling of helplessness gripped him as the encroaching water methodically engulfed his farmB次元官网网址檚 21 barns, and 200,000 of his chickens drowned, he said.

B次元官网网址淵ou stand there and Mother Nature takes control,B次元官网网址 said Spitters, 67. B次元官网网址淲hat can you do? The water comes in and thereB次元官网网址檚 nothing you can do.B次元官网网址

All he could think about as rising water claimed his chickens was: B次元官网网址淭hank God weB次元官网网址檙e not drowning (too),B次元官网网址 he said in an interview.

The record rains brought by an atmospheric river last November swamped southwest B.C., inundated farmland, washed out major highways and railways and forced thousands to flee.

Five people died in what the Insurance Bureau of Canada ranks as B.C.B次元官网网址檚 most costly weather event, with insured losses of $675 million.

A year after the disaster, provincial officials spent the past week touting rebuilding and recovery. The government said permanent repairs to the dikes were expected to be complete by next month, most dairy and poultry farms were B次元官网网址渂ack to normalB次元官网网址, and Highway 8 had reopened to the public after being washed out in 25 places.

But any sense of optimism is tempered by an awareness from climate experts and residents alike that the next big storm could come sooner rather than later.

Climate scientist Francis Zwiers, director of the University of VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, said the group produced a study this year that concluded human-induced climate change had increased the probability of such an event by up to 50 per cent.

B次元官网网址淭he probability of what we thought historically were high numbers has been increased because of human influence on the climate system,B次元官网网址 he said in an interview.

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The scale of last NovemberB次元官网网址檚 rainfall is told in the records shattered in almost 20 B.C. communities and locations.

From the morning of Saturday, Nov. 13, to the following Monday afternoon, 252 mm fell at the Coquihalla Highway Summit. In Hope, 225 mm fell, and in Agassiz, 208 mm.

Zwiers said the rains launched floods so severe that water level gauges in some locations were damaged or unreadable.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 really hard to get reliable answers out of the gauges because typically when thereB次元官网网址檚 a heavy rainfall event, the gauge becomes inaccurate,B次元官网网址 he said in an interview. B次元官网网址淚t, in essence, becomes damaged by the extreme stream flow thatB次元官网网址檚 produced.B次元官网网址

At one point in mid-November, all major transportation links out of Vancouver to B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Interior and east to Alberta were cut by landslides or washouts, including the Trans-Canada Highway, Coquihalla Highway, Highway 3, Highway 99 and rail lines.

Zwiers told a Senate committee reviewing the B.C. floods last June, that while such a storm was previously regarded as a once-in-50-years, or 100 years, event, precipitation of such magnitude was more likely a once-in-12-years event.

Zwiers said an atmospheric river is categorized as a flow of water vapour across the Pacific that originates in the subtropics.

B次元官网网址淭he particular atmospheric river that occurred was aligned with the Fraser Valley in a way that allowed moisture to penetrate relatively deeply into southwestern B.C.,B次元官网网址 he said.

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Spitters, whose Oranya Farms at Abbotsford is CanadaB次元官网网址檚 largest organic chicken producer, said that in addition to drowning his flock, the flooding damaged and destroyed farm equipment.

B次元官网网址淭he birds alone were upwards of $2 million, and beyond that we had equipment damage and repairs and clean up that totalled in excess of $1 million,B次元官网网址 he said. B次元官网网址淲e had a total loss of probably $3.3 to $3.4 million.B次元官网网址

But Spitters said he was back shipping between 40,000 to 60,000 organic chicken products to customers in Western Canada about one month after the storm.

Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said last week it had been an emotional year for many B.C. farmers, but most dairy and poultry farmers were back to normal, and most field crops had been planted as usual.

The Sumas Prairie dike breach saw 1,100 farms placed under evacuation order or alert, with 150 square kilometres of farmland swamped, resulting in the deaths of 630,000 chickens, 420 cattle and 12,000 hogs, she said.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said last week that repairs to the Sumas Dike were expected to be complete by the end of November, with 500 debris sites cleared. He said the province had approved more than $41 million in funding to repair and restore sites along waterways in the Fraser Valley, while a total $24.6 million in disaster financial assistance payments had been made.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming meanwhile hailed the work of repair crews to reopen Highway 8, which winds along the Nicola River between Merritt and Spences Bridge. He called the repairs an B次元官网网址渋mportant milestone.B次元官网网址

Such efforts arenB次元官网网址檛 erasing concerns about a repeat of the disaster, however.

At Hope, about 150 kilometres east of Vancouver, Dewan Davesar runs the Hope Pizza Place restaurant with wife Rupinder. They were widely praised for providing free hot food for stranded travellers last year.

B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 actually know why I did that,B次元官网网址 Davesar said in an interview. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a signal from God. I think God gave me that signal.B次元官网网址

The family brought in a generator after the restaurant lost power and kept handing out free pizza, garlic bread and tea for days, he said.

B次元官网网址淭hey tried to give me money but I said, B次元官网网址楴o, I donB次元官网网址檛 need money on these days,B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址 said Davesar.

Davesar said that in the past year heB次元官网网址檚 purchased extra coolers and now keeps a generator at the restaurant.

HeB次元官网网址檚 getting ready for the next storm.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

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